Flashback Friday: A Fun New Addition!

Flashback Friday is here! Each week, check back to see what fun, exciting story or photo I'll dig up and discuss. Who knows what you might find!

This week, to start Flashback Friday off on the right foot, I thought I'd start with something simple. To give a complete history of how Eric and I met would make for a very long post. BUT - showing you a picture of what we looked like way back when we were dating would be fun, no? So here ya go:

This was probably taken in 1995 or 1996 in Chicago, where we met while in college. Eric was a meat-and-potatoes loving boy from Ohio, and I was from the other side of the United States, a non-political, non-vegetarian, born-and-raised Northern Californian.

Our college had a great social program called "Bro-Sis", where a men's dorm floor and a women's dorm floor were paired up. Usually this just provided you with people to sit with at meals in the dining hall or for hanging out on the weekend. But this pairing was how Eric and I met. After several months as a part of a large group of friends, we started hanging out more together. He would walk me home from work in the evenings (so I didn't get mugged...haha). I helped teach him how to do his own laundry. It was fun and easy getting to know each other, and we explored the city of Chicago together. Walks along Navy Pier, hamburgers at Mr. J's, people watching along the Chicago River. The city holds so many memories for me and is a place I still love to this day.

Our 3-year dating relationship was not always roses and candy, though. We had some really rough patches - many months spent apart, family pressures, and Eric even broke off our relationship at least twice. But in February of 1997, while I was supposed to be writing a term paper on Buddhism, we took a drive, ended up somewhere in Wisconsin, and got engaged in a pet cemetery. Yes, you read that right. That in itself is a great story that I'll have to share sometime! And looking back, 12 1/2 years after getting married, I can see how every little memory has meant something so special even now. Those are moments that I will always treasure.

So a flashback? Yeah, maybe. But to me, I see it as another memory to add to the pile - another chance to remember how it all began...